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Friday, March 19, 2010

Cheese. Formaggio. Queso. However you say it… Most everyone likes it… some even LOVE it. I know people that put cheese on absolutely everything they eat… I mean everything…

I have a love/hate relationship with cheese… I LOVE good, ripe, flavorful cheese… the really good stuff… not that junk that has plastic film protecting it from the other cheese slices… (don’t get mad… I told you I’m a total food snob) BUT… cheese doesn’t like me… It makes my entire body swell up.. from all the salt. On this eating plan, the Let’s Do Lunch plan, cheese and all dairy are not advisable, and I have loved how I feel so much less swelled and uncomfortable, that I stay away from it altogether… except for Pecorino Romano grated on my salads… that’s the deal breaker… so I indulge in that… but nothing else…

IF you love cheese, and want to be more healthy, and possibly lose some weight… and NOT eating cheese is deal breaker for you… there are some healthier varieties out there…but be prepared… good food, unfortunately, comes with a higher price at the check out counter.

Good cheese has very few ingredients. Those few ingredients change the flavor of the cheese with TIME. Time makes for good cheese… not fillers, not flavorings, and certainly not coloring. Did you know that cheddar cheese is WHITE??? Yeah… WE here in the U.S. add the coloring… WHY? I HAVE NO IDEA! Ugh! Also… there is no such thing as Fat Free cheese… Oh… I know it’s out there… and it does exist… but really… after they take all the good stuff out, add in all the sugar, fillers and chemicals to make it “fat free”… it’s not CHEESE anymore… it’s one molecule away from plastic…in my book. If you are going to have cheese… make it good, made from whole, real ingredients… in small amounts… your body knows what to do with it… it’ll TASTE like cheese, and don’t you deserve real food? Oh… and that shredded stuff in a bag? Do you really want to know how all that cheese stays so separated? Let’s just say that you should grate your own cheese, and leave it at that…

Some good cheeses, that have good calcium, little ingredients, and are moderately lower in calories than most are… FRESH mozzarella (NOT that stuff in the shrink wrapped ball with all the lunch meats), neufchatel (cream cheese), Parmigiana Reggiano, Pecorino Romano (a good one is sold at Costco), Swiss, and Provolone. Cheddar, Head, and EZ cheese (oh, boy… don’t get me started on that one) ARE higher in fat, and tend to have a lot of “other” ingredients in them. Nacho Cheese.. .in a can… NOT CHEESE AT ALL! Just stand in line at the ER while eating it… it’ll save a trip.

Me, I’m off Dairy altogether… but my family enjoys a slice in their sandwiches now and then. NOW… and THEN… are the operative words. Cheese shouldn’t be an everyday food for anyone… me included. It’s loaded with salt… which is precisely why when I used to eat it, in any amount, I lost my ankles, and my rings wouldn’t come off…

Crumble up your favorite cheese in 1 oz increments over a salad or over a soup. Place a lovely slice over your morning eggs or on a piece of awesome whole grain toast. Keep it at one ounce per serving for your waistline, and your heart.

What does NOT constitute cheese? I touched on this earlier.. but allow me to expound… If it comes with a lid, and it’s in an aluminum can, and you have to press a nozzle to let it squirt out… IT. IS. NOT. CHEESE. It is a combination of a bunch of congealed goo, pressure packed into a canister…like silly string. I dare you to read the ingredients of a bottle. Cheese should not come in a bottle… or in a can, and it shouldn’t pour out of anything unless you melted it yourself… on your stove.

Last week, I went shopping for our local Little Leagues Snack Bar with the new Snack Bar Mgr… and we had to purchase the Nacho Cheese in bags, for the Nacho Machine. It doesn’t have to be refrigerated, and it’s shelf life was 5 years from now. THAT. IS. NOT. CHEESE. And I will pump my kids stomachs if they think they are going to ever order another order of nachos again…I should have been arrested for putting that junk in the cart… I was queasy. It’s not right…

If we learn to view cheese as a food enhancer, rather than the main dish or component of a meal, we will be healthier in the long run. If you can stay away from it altogether… and not miss it… you won’t be giving up on calcium… eat broccoli for your calcium… or a host of other veggies with loads of calcium in them…

Fermented cheeses tend to be better for our tummies than new cheeses…since most of the digestion is done right on the cheese… and if you choose a strong flavored cheese, you’ll eat less of it.

Pair it up with fruit whenever you can… grapes, tomatoes, apples… since cheese can be binding… if you know what I mean… and the fruit will help combat that before it becomes a problem…

So… enjoy a little cheese now and then… you don’t have to give up your favorite foods to lose weight… just eat them in tiny morsels… and live well!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Don’t you just love Costoc’s rotisserie chicken? I do. It’s inexpensive, additive free, and it just tastes sooo yummy!

When I’m short on time, and I know I won’t be able to prepare any chicken ahead of time during my prep… I buy two Costco chickens…

I make…

Chicken Fajitas, tacos, stir fries, soup, stock from the bones, cacciatore and a host of other things as well…

It is a very versatile product… and I like how big they are. As soon as I get them home, I skin them, and pull every morsel of meat off the bone and put it into a large freezer bag, take the air out and place it in my fridge… Viola! Insta-meat! I don’t bother with my freezer for this… it lasts an entire week in the fridge, and since I have 5 to prepare meals for… it doesn’t last long anyway…

A favorite recipe around here is…

1 torn up Costco chicken

2 red bell peppers, sliced

2 onions, sliced

8 mushrooms, sliced

2 cups frozen corn

cumin

taco seasoning

salt

pepper

Saute up the onions, mushrooms, corn and pepper until golden… add cumin, taco seasoning, salt, pepper and chicken… stir to combine…
Eat this at lunchtime…

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

“I know I should feed my family more healthy meals… but I’m just so BUSY!” or the “I have a bunch of kids and it’s too expensive to buy fresh fruit and veggies… the bags of processed food and “gogurts” is sooo much more economical and fast for me…as long as they eat… and it has milk and some protein in it… my kids will be fine”, and my personal favorite… “Oh, I’m not a cook like you… and I have a job…blah, blah, blah”

I didn’t get fat by eating only unhealthy foods. I ate well… lots of fruits, veggies, and breads… just at the wrong times, and with a lot of “convenience” foods thrown in for good measure.

It was so much easier and faster to go through a drive thru and get some marinated chicken and tortillas for dinner. It was way more convenient to pull a tub of ice cream out of the freezer for a quick dessert for the family. We ate fruit all the time… and we’ve always eaten way more vegetables than the average family… but other food choices were sabotaging any good that could come from eating well. One good thing, coupled with one bad thing… kept things status quo. Nothing changed… but my weight… upwards…

Ever since I first became pregnant, I became a cook. From conception, I knew I wanted my kids to eat cleanly, and fresh. It’s how I grew up. My oldest son was 5 before he ever tasted a hot dog. Now I wish I had never, ever, ever, given him or my other kids any of that garbage. I got a lot of flack and a lot of “Oh, well, of course you cook for your kids, you don’t have to work and you are home all day long… so you have the time…” What they failed to realize was that I also ran two home businesses, and had three kids under 5… my time was not my own. So I succombed to the stigma of being an At Home Mama, and started doing things the way most of the other Mom’s in the Playgroup were doing… for a few minutes…

Then I saw my kids complexion, and their teeth, and their overall disposition change, and I quickly went back to cooking and making fresh food. My children have never had a weight problem. I did to my body, what I did, all by myself. I wanted better for my kids.

They have never eaten a “school meal” (their schools are private, and don’t have those programs anyway) but they have always taken their lunch to school. To this day, my 16 year old has his lunch made fun of… because it is full of homemade breads, veggies, fruit and no processed foods… and he loves it… and even welcomes the opportunity to share his yummy lunch and “turn them around”.

We need to change our own minds about food, so it will trickle down to our children too. We need to get back into the kitchen. We need to make mealtime an event. We need to stop shopping the convenience food aisle and see that we are killing ourselves and our kids.

“My kids are healthy, and not overweight, so those foods aren’t hurting them at all”… I hear that all the time, on TV, at the store between two Mom’s talking, in my own family. I am here to tell you… just because your kids aren’t overweight now, and aren’t ill now… doesn’t mean they are getting all the nutrition they require for a long healthy life. As I’ve said before… sugar LOVES Cancer, and sugar is in EVERYTHING processed. All those chemicals, and by products of what once was food, are being Genetically Modified to make ‘FOOD LIKE” substances that taste good, require virtually no cooking time, and can stay on a shelf almost indefinitely. When a “cheese” food product doesn’t need to be refrigerated… WORRY!

“But Sandra, we aren’t home, and we aren’t chef’s like you… we don’t have the time to do these things!!!” YES. YOU. DO!!! We all MAKE TIME for all the things we deem important. We make time for manicures, movies, TV watching, practices, music lessons, going out to dinner etc…

WE NEED TO MAKE TIME TO PREPARE HEALTHY FOOD FOR OUR FAMILIES. Their very LIVES depend on it.

You are all good parents. You want the BEST for your kids, in every way. You want them to succeed in life, stay off drugs, not smoke, go to college, get married, have children, lead productive fulfilling lives… TEACHING THE BEST FOOD HABITS is vital to all of that happening. It JUST IS! What we set forth in our own homes now, as far as food rules and dietary guidelines, WILL STAY WITH OUR CHILDREN when they are older. They may stray in the beginning and eat all the forbidden things for a bit, but when they see their bodies morph into something they don’t want… they will have the tools necessary to fight the good fight and get back on track.

Nutrition information is KEY to success in health. Knowing what is in our food… what causes inflammation, what causes cravings, what chemicals are creating disease, what ISN’T real food, what the names of the food-like substances are, and to avoid them… IS KEY!

We need to change our MINDS.. and not only worry about our SIZE. There are a lot of unhealthy, undernourished NORMAL WEIGHT people out there… and there are a lot of unhealthy, UNDER nourished heavy people out there… volumes of food, does not make for nutrition… and being skinny doesn’t make one healthy either.

If we do nothing else, we should at least be cooking one meal a day, from our own refrigerators, that does not come from a box or bag. We should be cooking from things that don’t have nutritional information printed on the box… just an annoying sticker to take off before we wash it.

Join me in a Food Revolution of our own. Be proactive in your kitchen… and start cooking food that FEEDS every cell in our bodies, instead of just satiating hunger. Buy and eat the rainbow. Look at beans as little nibbles of meat. Make your own salad dressings… or buy mine… LOL! Olive Oil and vinegar are AWESOME on salad… Add a can of tuna for protein… or salmon.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

I love this stuff… raw, cooked, baked, broiled, you name a way to eat it… and I probably have…

I recently found out that a lady I know has been fighting a terrible battle with breast cancer. I started looking up foods I could make for her to help combat it’s recurrence once she is better, (she asked me to) and I noticed on all my searches… that cabbage, namely the Cruciferous Family of veggies came up every. single. time. Turns out… it is a POWERHOUSE of cancer fighting… the Superman of vegetables. I’m not kidding… it’s literally written up that in 70 percent of 100 studies, cabbage consumption was associated with lower cancer risk.

I eat a LOT of cabbage. A WHOLE LOT. Always have. I eat it raw too… yes, even when I wasn’t eating right… cabbage was a mainstay in my fridge. I buy it in huge 5 lbs bags, preshredded, but have learned that buying it whole is better for me… so I am finishing up my bag and will switch to heads of it next week.

I use it in every stirfry, I mix it with every green salad, and I love the purple cabbage too. It can be stuffed, bbq’d, broiled, shaved, sliced, diced, tossed and steamed…
It gets sweet when cooked… but has more cancer fighting ability when eaten raw…

I make a Peasant Pasta with it…for my hubby and kids…

1 whole cabbage sliced thinly

1 whole onion, sliced thinly

olive oil

salt

pepper

Heat your pan up until it screaming hot… and add the onions… then the cabbage to the hot oil and saute until wilted… salt and pepper to taste

While that’s cooking, boil up some pasta ( about one pound of short, tube pasta like Penne)…

Drain pasta, and add it to the cabbage and onion “sauce”… top with grated hard cheese… and enjoy

Friday, March 12, 2010

Yesterday, a dear friend and I were talking on the phone, about life, having and quitting addictions, what’s changed about our mindsets this time about our addictions, and a host of other life ’stuff”.

She is a lovely lady, kind, giving, generous, hardworking, with a true sense of who she is, where she came from and where she is going. Oh… she also happens to have the body of a 20 year old, and she not 20 anymore… or 40…

She said something that touched my heart yesterday… and if it had come from any other person, I think I would have taken it the wrong way… but she said…

“I watch the Biggest Loser, and it has REALLY changed the way I see people with a weight problem.” She said.. ‘You know… there’s a stigma about overweight people and common misconceptions about them.” and my heart was saying … YES… YES… YES!!! We are not sitting around eating ice cream out of troughs or just sitting on the couch eating 12 pizzas!

Having people around you like my friend… will really help with your weight loss, or your other addictions. Even though she HAS NO IDEA what it is like to be morbidly obese, she is still capable of feeling empathy, and helping me, and her other friends win the battle. Because of a TV show… which, I admit, I have never watched…not even one episode, (too close to home maybe?) she is able to see the struggles and willpower and hold over MILLIONS of people (not just those overweight either) that food has… she said…”A smoker doesn’t HAVE to smoke to live… but we all need FOOD to live… and to be addicted to something vital for life, has got to be difficult to break.”

She told me that she noticed the change in my body when she last saw me. That made my heart sing. She… a skinny person… noticed that I, an extremely overweight woman, had lost weight. Other than a few close friends and my family, no one says those things to me. I know its noticeable, I know I look a little different, and she took the time to tell me she noticed…

I guess what I am trying to say is… on your journey… surround yourself with people who are strong, confident women, who aren’t afraid to say NICE things to you, when it counts. It really is a motivator to continue to change your life, for whatever reason… weight loss, smoking, alcoholism, shopping, OCD… whatever the problem… I ‘m not saying get a bunch of “yes” people and have a ball… No, not my thing…

I’m just saying that as you continue to change your life, you’ll start to see every aspect of your life change and shift to meet you half way, or will you to continue on the wrong path. You’ll have choices you didn’t know you had before, because the power of the addiction won’t be blocking your radar for a happier life. People will come into your life at just the right time, and people will bow out of your life at just the right time… you’ll be able to see both as a blessing as you continue on your quest to better health.

Winning the battle of the bulge, or the drink, or the cancer stick… means to open yourself up to the possibility of success. Scary thought sometimes… we all know how to fail…we’ve all done it a million times… but winning, for most of us, is a new concept, and it can be daunting… success means we have to continue to do it, we have to forge ahead, and stay strong…

Having positive, life affirming people in our lives, like “K”, helps… it can be the “nudge” one needs to carry on doing the good work.

A lot of people don’t realize what one kind statement can do to a person. I have had things said to me in passing, both good and bad, that have stayed with me for years… Thankfully, I choose to remember the good things more… but once, when someone I respected told me I was a good Mother, THAT STUCK WITH ME… and I often think about it, and get happy remembering it, especially when I don’t feel like such a good Mama.

Winning can be scary. Success can sometimes be a burden… but when you surround yourself with positive, kindhearted people… the task at hand seems so much more doable…

Wouldn’t you agree? Go thank your “people” that have helped you… let them know their support, in whatever it was, was appreciated… then get back to that mirror, and give your reflection a little smooch, say some nice things about the person you see, and go pay it forward by being a lighthouse to others too…

Thursday, March 11, 2010

This soups is great hot or cold… it’s thick, rich, tastes like it has a ton of fat and calories in it… (it doesn’t at all) and it’s EASY!!! The picture above is the soup without the peas… and I love it with peas…

So.. here’s what ya do…

Gather

1 large Butternut Squash, peel and seed and chop it up into 1 inch chunks

2 cups frozen peas (set aside)

1 cup frozen corn (set aside)

4-6 cups of water or fat free stock of your choice (both are good, no worries…)

salt

pepper

Curry powder if you like or some dried dill weed… or not…

Cook the butternut chunks in the water or stock until tender… add salt to taste, pepper to taste, corn, peas, and seasonings… and cook until heated through…

Pour all of it into a food processor or blender, or take a stick blender like I have, and pulverize it until it’s a luscious thick mass of tastiness…

Add more water or stock to desired thickness… and eat up!!!

It’s a great color combo, and like I said… it tastes yummy cold, with pineapple salsa stirred into it…

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Being overweight, in our society, takes some strength. Not physical strength… but mental, spiritual, and psychological strength. The average overweight person must endure a barrage of comments, quips, backhanded compliments etc… A person doesn’t even have to be morbidly obese to be ostracized, put down, or overlooked. A few extra pounds in any amount will surely bring about opinion after opinion about weight loss, the mental stability of the person, the willpower one just CAN’T possess, or there MUST be some hidden, underlying, seethingly horrid REASON for someone to be overweight… just like Oprah says…

Well… I beg to differ with Oprah… but I’ll get to that in a bit…

Truth… I don’t know ONE overweight person that wants to STAY being overweight. Myself included… It is not a condition that one desires to be in. Just like most smokers don’t WANT to smoke.. but do. Drinkers? They like their drink… I’ll stay away from that one… LOL.

There isn’t a day that goes by, that I don’t see myself in the mirror. I know… I see it… all of it. What I don’t need? What every overweight person DOESN’T EVER NEED? Is someone’s opinion of why we are overweight or what I mean is… someone that tries to “get to the bottom of why I am overweight”, or tries to foresee my future… for instance… “Oh girl… you are gonna die an early, terrible death… you are going to get diabetes, and have a heart attack, and leave those baby boys with no Mother…” Really? Holy cow… ever heard of being Hung by the Tongue? Why do people feel the need to put stuff like that out into the universe? HUH? Tell me! Ahem… sorry… got a little carried away there…

Last week, Howard Stern, made a rude comment on air about the “Precious” actress, Gaboret Sidibe, saying that she will “never get work again, because of her weight’. Really… did that HAVE to be said? Why is it… when a woman is completely secure in who she is… no matter what size she is… others feel the need to cut her down? I mean, have you seen the lovely Jessica Simpson? Does she look fat AT ALL to you? But what did they call her last year, while she was singing in her size 6 jeans? Fat? Yep.

Are the people writing and saying those awful things, perfect, behind their lenses and in front of their computers? I bet they aren’t!!! I bet they are pimple faced, scaredy cat maggots that have nothing better to do with their time than put other people down… to uplift themselves… presumably. We all know what Howard Stern looks like… and he has NO place to talk, which is precisely why he is behind a microphone, instead of in front of a camera… He lives in one huge glass house… huh? See… that wasn’t nice either… I shouldn’t have “gone” there… but that’s what his type of “journalism” breeds…

It broke my heart today… to see on the View… a woman that claims to have a webshow centered around her eating herself to 1,000 lbs in weight. There is supposedly a picture of her on her site, with no clothes on, in all her glory… WHY!! WHY!! WHY!! WHY!!!

That is NOT what I mean when I say that we need to be confident in ourselves and love ourselves where we are at… NO , NO , NO!!! That is NOT being confident and showing pride and having self esteem…!!! It’s showing herself as a freak show!!! It is so unbelievably sad… she has children. Is someone going to pay her to get to a thousand pounds??? Why?????

Everyone seems to have an opinion as to why someone is overweight. Oprah, whom I like, seems to believe that there needs to be a deep seated reason for all addictive behavior. While it might be true for some, I don’t believe it is true for all. Some people eat from boredom, or heartache. Some people eat because they have eaten a certain way forever, and never changed it as they got older, even though their metabolism has changed. Some people eat for pleasure. Not everyone had to have a bad childhood, or an abusive relationship, or any other sort of psychological problem to overeat… Some just see the food, and eat all of it. I don’t believe there needs to be a reason behind the weight… I just believe there needs to be a yearning to lose it, the right way.

I’ve never been abused, or neglected, or molested, or abandoned. I’ve never let someone else determine my worth. I’ve never allowed anyone else to define who I am. I’ve never felt like less of a person, for being more of a person.

I CHOSE to eat bad foods. No one was shoving it down my throat. No one was MAKING me eat, buy, or prepare it. It’s not the fast food restaurants fault, it’s not my grocery store’s fault… it’s not my parent’s fault… ITS ALL MY OWN FAULT!!!

Other people’s opinions of my life, or your life, or anyones life…should not be taken heavily. Try not to dwell on the “skinny” person’s view of what a “fat” person’s world must be like. Many times, if delivered in a caring, kind, compassionate way, an opinion can be lovely and heartfelt and well recieved… but often times, opinions are used as a way to elevate one party to diminish another… so the offending party can feel superior… for having control over their eating habits and behavior, and show you how out of control you really are…

If the “regular” sized people of the world can stop assuming that my life is one of obvious drudgery, loneliness, hatred, self loathing, hypocritical, one visit after the next to the hospital, days filled with oppression and crying… then I will stop assuming that your life is one big self hated, do I look okay in these jeans, Oh, I hope that guy notices my personality instead of my boobs, why is everyone staring at my zit, hey, am I prettier than her, oh my gosh, I am sooo hot… vapid life. It has got to be tough being so lovely on the outside, and so empty in the inside.

I am so glad my gorgeous friends aren’t empty in the inside… big, small, thin, fat, short and tall.. those I love and that love me… we see each other for who we are… women of substance… take-charge women that know where they came from and where they are going…that are way too busy to spend more than a normal amount of time primping in a mirror that lies about who we really are…

So… Opinions are like butts… everyone has one… but that doesn’t mean we have to listen to them.
Now go look in the mirror, and tell yourself you are lovely, and strong, and bright, and today.. you will follow plan and eat well… for you… not anyone else!!! Because you are worth it…

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

What does that mean to someone who is on weight loss journey? Especially if that someone’s main meal staple is fresh fruits? IT MEANS MELON SEASON IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER!!!

Nothing… and I mean NOTHING… fills me up for dinner like WATERMELON does. I don’t know what it is… maybe the fiber, maybe the host of other great things about melon, like folate, and potassium… whatever it is… I LOVE IT!

You should see the check out cashier at the store when watermelon, any melon really, are on sale for 10 cents a pound. I’ve been known and seen to have TWO CARTS full of melons and nothing else… (no… I don’t ask for bags… LOL) I will quite literally, cut up one entire melon for my family for dinner, per night… and no one complains. We eat like ravenous dogs when its melon season.

Watermelon, honeydew, cassaba, cantaloupe… whatever the melon… eat it… LOTS OF IT!! It’ll lower blood pressure, help bowels, add fiber, feed your body water. BUT… BUY THEM WHOLE!!! Lots of nutrients are lost when they are exposed to long periods of light, so try not to buy already cut melon from the store…

How do I pick a good watermelon? Forget thumping it… how for heaven’s sake can you check for ripeness by thumping it? I don’t know either… Look for a dark green or stripy exterior for watermelon, and fat is always better than thin. Bee stings are good to… bee’s like sweet things…

Smell a cantaloupe for sweetness… if you can smell the fruit inside, it’s a good one…also, if you can see a lot of green within the “netting” of the skin, it’s not ripe.

Honeydew… shake it. It’s ripe when you can hear and feel the seeds inside sloshing around… also, honeydew is the most nutritious of the melons.

I lost a TON of weight when my evening meal was nothing but watermelon… and I must say… I was never hungry after eating it… it was always enough…

Sooo… melons are the Food of the Week… and in my book, they are the food of the CENTURY!!! By the way.. my Bday is June 14, and a big juicy watermelon is always a great gift!!! LOL

Monday, March 8, 2010

Had a VERY important list. A list… that as I read it… I kept saying…. “Yeah!!!” ‘Holy Cow… uh huh!” “I KNEW IT!” The best part of that page, was the previous one that was titled…

“Overweight… eating away the pounds”. I’ve had this book for about 2 years now… and this was the first time I’ve ever noticed that page. I love this book. It’s easy to read, and big and juicy… and makes me smarter the more I read it…

But the most interesting part of this “overweight” section was the study done at the University of Australia where the scientists rated foods that keep us fuller, longer. Any food that did kept hunger at bay for a good long time, was rated over 100, and foods that make us more hungry, more often, were rated under 100.

Want to know what the over 100 foods have in common? FIBER… I can’t say enough how FIBER is the key to all weight loss, less cancer, less stress, less hemorrhoids, less weight, less of everything bad. Add a little bit of Olive Oil to the fiber or some flax seed meal, or wheat germ… and then all kinds of miracles happen within our bodies to help carry the vitamins and amino acids to the place within us that will most benefit from them…

The beautiful thing about my new way of eating… is the plethora foods I am eating every day. “DIEt’s” used to tell us to EAT LESS, DON’T EAT THAT, STAY AWAY FROM ALL FAT, NO… YOU CAN’T HAVE A NICE STEAK FOR A MEAL!… and all that junk… and we all know now that’s just all WRONG!

What matters is HOW we eat the food, WHEN we eat the food, AND CHOOSE WISELY the types of foods we eat. Yes, Cheetos and Doritos are going to make us fat… even eating a small amount… why? BECAUSE THEY DON’T SATIATE our hunger centers of our brains… they have so many chemicals in them that aren’t food, it CHANGES our brain signals to EAT MORE OF THEM… and then creates a pleasure center ‘memory’ of that food, and then we buy them over, and over, and over… ‘BECAUSE THEY TASTE GOOD” Blueberries taste good too… eat them by the BUCKET! I know… I know… Doritos cost less… don’t even get me started… medical bills are expensive too, so are heart and liver transplants… blueberries cost WAAAAAY less.

Eat your biggest meal, of the VAST ARRAY of gorgeous colored food EARLY IN YOUR DAY… before 4 p.m… and eat fruit until it’s coming out of your ears if you get hungry at night…
Do I sound like I’m preaching? yeah? GOOD! I am! I love you. I love me. I think we all deserve better than what we are being dished up. Our children deserve the benefit of our knowledge and our ability to make good food choices in our markets. Remember… every time we stand at the check out counter at the store, we are voting and telling our stores what to stock on the shelves… With each pass of the chips, and donuts, and sugary drinks, that makes that little “beep” sound when it crosses the scanner, we are letting our store know that we either choose the crap or the good stuff…

From the looks of most grocery stores… we have been voting so badly… for so long… that the stores are now FULL to the BRIM with brightly colored bags of heart attacks and strokes… boxes of diabetes, and canisters of fat and water retention.

We need to start pulling a lot of bags of this… across that scanner… so the stores will purchase and require the BEST and PESTICIDE free living food for all of us to eat… and be able to pay for.

I love stuffed everything… mushrooms, cabbage, peppers.. you name it… I’m a fan of stuffing it… LOL! BUT!!! a lot of the ingredients in traditional stuffed foods are no-no’s on the LDL plan… so I did a little change here and there, and think I came up with some tasty alternatives…

First, gather your “boats”… the things you want to stuff…

Either cut them in half and scoop out a little of the pulp or cut the top off, and stand it up… KEEP THE SCOOPED BITS…

Then saute up a chopped onion, 3 cloves chopped garlic, some green onion, the pulp of the veggie boat, some chopped mushrooms, a handful of grated Parmigiana or Romano cheese, a little water or chicken stock, salt, pepper and (if you allow yourself brown rice, use it…) otherwise leave it out, and a tiny bit (2 oz) of feta cheese crumbles (or not) and get it all cooked up and bubbly and yummy.

Sprinkle in about a tsp of cumin, and if you like things spicy, some cayenne or red pepper flakes, and stir it into the mixture until well blended.

Stuff the mixture into each vessel, and sprinkle a tiny bit of the grated low fat cheese on top… Bake in a baking dish at 400 for about 15 minutes or until the top gets crusty…

Does ANY of that stuff up there sound like food AT ALL???? All that junk… all that processed, fake food, send us to the hospital early, killing our kidneys rapidly, hard to digest, no wonder celebrities need to hawk digestive yogurt in commercials, crud… is what our country wants us to believe is actual food~!

Friends… WE NEED TO GET WAAAAAY BACK TO BASICS!!! I keep saying… the outside of my body, my actual shell, hasn’t caught up with my mind and soul when it comes to how clean we are eating in my family now. My boys HATE going grocery shopping with me now… they still aren’t completely on board with the NO PROCESSED food lifestyle I am trying to BRAINWASH them into adapting… Yes, I said BRAINWASHING… and I mean it!

I want them to realize… that eating well, and clean, and preservative free is for their lives… literally for their well being and life… not just because I am trying to be mean and make them do something to make them feel like outsiders to others…

Do they still want Cheetos, and Doritos, and soda? Yeah… but as the mother in this household, the kitchen is my domain… and I say what goes here… and as for me and my house… we will eat healthy. What they do when they are away from me… well… i can’t control… HOWEVER… when they have upset stomachs or constipation and they call me from the bathroom with a “Mooooooommmmm”.. and I go in there… and they tell me they are in pain… the first thing I ask is… “What did you eat today, that I didn’t prepare for you? That didn’t come from my kitchen?” Then… the lightbulb goes off… I see it in their face… and they understand… and apologize under their breath, and are slowly starting to understand how food, and the choices they make in that food, is effecting their bodies, and how they feel.

They are kids… and kids feel peer pressure from every point in their lives… Not a day goes by, that my oldest son, doesn’t come home from school with yet another story about some kid that saw his huge, homemade lunch, questioned it with a distainful question, said it was gross looking because his sandwich had flecks of brown seed like things in it, and tomatoes, and spinach and lettuce and roasted red peppers, and just a tiny bit of meat… and he had 4 pieces of fruit and no chips or soda or gatorade… just water… High School students that actually are judging a kid due to what he is eating for lunch. William is a STRONG WILLED, CONFIDENT soul, who isn’t swayed to feel anything but how he wants to feel, and he says he defends his lunches all the time. He has taken to taking an extra sandwich, and asks the naysayers to try it, and I am now getting orders from Mother’s to make lunches for their kids… The naysayers are now shutting up…
I am taking over the Food Program for our High Schools Football Program for the next season… AND I CAN’T WAIT to get my hands on those meals. I am gonna FEED THOSE BOYS… like they have never been fed before!!!

Gone are the days of beef jerky, and high sodium teryaki sauce, and free fast food from local vendors, and globulous cheese and processed meat dinners…

They are going to have steak, and sweet potatoes, and lots of roasted veggies, and homemade breads, and homemade pizza’s and calzones, fresh, huge, flavorful and colorful salads, desserts that are chock full of fruit and good dairy, and yogurts…fish, free range chicken meats, simply made for maximum flavor…

I want to give them an EDGE… on the field… I want their bodies to create energy within them that will be easy to burn on the field, that will encourage their kidneys to function well, while under pressure, and not create an environment for water because the food was too salty… but because their bodies are working like a well oiled machine…

There is no place, in life, for the stuff that the big companies are stocking the grocery store shelves with. We won’t live well, or long, if we continue to eat “what tastes good” or what comes in huge, foil bags that are advertised during Super Bowl Sunday.

We need to be in total control of what our children eat… from early on. Don’t make the same mistake I’ve made… don’t wait to teach your children that tater tots and canned, thick sodium laden soups are good for them. Just because you can get a chicken, rice and canned soup meal on the table in under 3o minutes, doesn’t mean it’s good for us… it’s just fast.

Learn from me… and learn that waiting until they are teens is waiting too long. I knew… in the back of my mind, years ago, that cooking the “casserole” way wasn’t the best way to go about things… but I talked myself into it by saying… ‘I’m busy… at least it’s cooked at home, and they like it…” Well… they’ll like it a lot more if they were healthy for 99 years too.

Let’s make meals less about convenience and more about feeding the body, those tiny, new bodies, and helping them run efficiently, with less illness, stomach upset and less trips to the doctor for a lifetime… Let’s make meals more about teaching good food habits, and less about “But my kids LOVE Ritz- TUNA casserole” and more about… “I’m the Mom, and I care about my kids more than I care if they like me or not”

Go into your cupboards and start throwing out everything that has foreign words in the ingredient list…and donate them to your local food shelter. I KNOW you like Cheetos, and I KNOW your kids love the Gogurts, and the Chewy Granola bars… but they can learn to like apples, and pears and watermelon and oranges too. No WONDER there is so much Cancer and Diabetes in the world right now… we eat chemicals.. not food. I know the kids love those Lunchables… but have you ever read the label? The only people I would have ever fed that junk to was the two guys in the 911 planes, Hitler and Castro. My kids used to beg me for those insipid things… I never bought them… I am sooo glad I didn’t… and it makes me soooo angry when I see them on sale for a BUCK at the store… Real food costs REAL money. It’s unfortunate… but it’s true… chips and junk cost lots less than real food does… but the medical bills are always higher for the junk food eaters… always.. so the price is equal… it is soooo backwards here in the States.

I know I sound like a food preacher… and I’m not about to apologize for it… I just want all of us to arm ourselves with health, and to be strong… for ourselves… and for our families…

In the end… when my boys are on their own… and they are at the store, shopping… I want that little voice in their heads to be mine… telling them to love themselves enough to buy real food, for themselves and their families. To put their health before convenience or popularity…

I have no idea why I wrote that title… maybe I was channeling Bob Hope and his “Thanks for the Memories” song… but bear with me… it worked in my mind…

Flax… have you heard of it? It’s my new favorite food. It’s a tiny, tiny little seed, with a POWERFUL punch. The best thing about it? IT TASTES GREAT!

I do wish we would name our foods with pretty names. Flax seems like its good for you, therefore, it MUST taste awful! Why couldn’t it be named… oh….Moonbeam seed… or Livewell kernel… but… alas… Flax is short and sweet… less to type.

I have been adding Flax seed MEAL to almost every food I prepare for my family and myself. Yes, if you’ve taken bread home from my oven, or eaten my cookies, or have come over for dinner in the past 2 years… you, too, have eaten Flax seed meal. Bet you didn’t know you did!

Every bread loaf, bagel, baguette, breadstick, pizza crust, cookie, cake, bowl of cereal, and casserole I make, has added Flax seed meal in it… when I cook for friends and family.

It contains essential amino acids that are hard to find elsewhere, in such abundance. It has FIBER galore, and it’s GREAT for lowering cholesterol… and has been studied and shown to slow the growth of breast tumors in women and prostate cancer growth in men.

It’s important to eat it ground up. You can buy whole Flax seeds like I do, and grind them up nicely in a coffee grinder, batch for batch. Or you can buy it already ground up. Make sure to store any unused portion in the refrigerator because it’s chock full of wonderful good-for-you fatty acids that can go rancid quickly.

I love the Bob’s Red Mill variety, and I can find it at my local supermarket… and Trader Joes. All health food, or Whole Foods stores carry it.

Sneak it into foods… sprinkle it on cereal, add a tablespoon or two to your smoothie, add it to cookie dough, stir it into soups and stews… You’ll barely notice it’s there.

It’s a very small, economical way to add powerful nutrition to our day. Aren’t you worth the very best?

Friday, March 5, 2010

We Italians… we know how to eat… and eat well. Olive oil is a staple in every true Italian home. I don’t even own another kind of oil. But I do have Extra virgin, virgin, and light olive oils…

My Mama’s version of Potato Salad is truly divine… to say the least… but since I am off potatoes, I only make enough to feed my men… and I just pick the string beans out of it and eat them…

Since I was a little girl, every year, when broccoli was at its peak, Mama would make a fantastic broccoli salad. No, it’s not that mayonaisse version with bacon and raisins and nuts so many love these days… this one is just a light, flavorful, crunchy salad that sings on the tongue!

1 large stock pot, heavy as possible filled with 8 quarts of salted water, brought to a rapid boil

olive oil

salt

pepper

Steam or quickly blanche the broccoli until bright green and crisp tender… DO NOT COOK UNTIL THEY LOSE THEIR COLOR… yuck!!! They’ll be all soggy and gross…
Strain and Quickly place them into a big ice bath to stop the cooking…

Pat dry, and place into a large bowl

Add the juice of both lemons… (it sounds like a lot… but trust me…)

add about 1/4 – 1/2 olive oil to the florets

sprinkle with salt to taste

Sprinkle with freshly cracked black pepper

Serve immediately… the lemon “cooks” the broccoli… so if you want to have a little bit everyday for lunch… Just juice the lemons ahead of time, and place the juice into a small container, add all the olive oil and salt and pepper only to the broccoli, and the day you want to eat your salad, then dress with the lemon juice in the amount that suits you… Does that make sense?

Now…as for the cauliflower and zucchini salads… The lemon does NOT cook them for some reason… so add it right away and let it sit in the fridge… soooooooo yummy! My favorite is the zucchini and cauliflower…

I like to mix them also… especially the broccoli and cauliflower… on a hot summer day… in the morning I’ll cook up a boat load of broc and caul and ice it up and let it air dry… then for dinner, I’ll dress it, and we all fight over it…